Monday, May 12, 2014

It Takes A Village

This month marks the sixth year that I will be participating at the Bay Area Maker Faire, which will be held on May 17-18 at the San Mateo Event Center (near the San Francisco airport).

Maker Faire bills itself as “The Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth,” and for the last five years, I have curated an area at Maker Faire that has been dubbed the “3-D Village” as it is comprised of exhibits that are in some way related to 3-D and stereography. This year’s 3-D Village will have an exciting mix of displays and workshops including several LA 3-D Club members:

“Photographic Phantograms” - Barry Rothstein’s demonstration of producing photographic phantograms. Barry will also be selling his 3-D books and cards.

“3-D Photography, Do It Yourself” - Lawrence and Cassie Kaufman will be presenting 3-D images displayed on several display types and hand-outs on how to make 3-D photos.

“Stereoscopic 3-D Projects” - Jodi Kurland will exhibit various projects from members of the LA 3-D Club, including stereoscopic 3-D photography and videos. Club member volunteers will demonstrate the equipment used for making and displaying 3-D photos and videos, including custom camera rigs, 3-D computer displays, 3-D TV, smartphones, and tablets.

“3-DIY: Do-It-Yourself Stereoscopic 3-D” - My booth where I will be showing my homebrew 3-D camera and display devices, 3-D music videos and films, moving phantograms, and 3-D capture with the Kinect sensor.

In addition to these club members’ booths, the 3-D Village will also have these exhibits:

“Xulu Virtual World and Creator Kit” - Xulu is free virtual world and development platform that helps everyone create and share high-quality online social places along with physics-based gaming and playful activities.

“Kindle Fire VR” - a virtual reality headset using an Amazon Kindle Fire plus Arduino inspired by the Oculus Rift and built by a high school student.

“Project Gauntl33t” - Project Gauntl33t is designing haptic feedback gloves for the purpose of allowing the users to feel objects in virtual reality.

“Visual Orchestra” - The Visual Orchestra is meant to delight kids of all ages. It is a combination of light, sound and motion. It is the next in a series of multimedia art and technology presentations by Greg Ames.

“Poppy 3D – turn your iPhone into a 3D camera” - Poppy turns any iPhone into a 3D camera. Capture, view and share 3D video clips and photos, all using just your iPhone’s camera and the optics built into Poppy.

The 3-D Village will be located in Fiesta Hall, in room C, a large darkened area, ideal for 3-D projection. It will be a great weekend, and we look forward to showing Maker Faire’s attendees our 3-D works. Tell your friends in the Bay Area to attend, and if any club members are planning to go themselves, please let us know you’ll be there.

For more information about Maker Faire, visit the website makerfaire.com